Update on "riots" tonight from local news sites

[fernsandlilies]

Brighton - Less than 10 anti-immigration 'protesters' and about 1,500 counter-protesters with more arriving all the time. Jazz band playing. No violence observed or reported. A couple of buses had to stop for a few minutes to get through the crowd.

Hastings likewise - a handful of anti-immigrationists, and hundreds of counter protesters, chanting "say it loud, say it clear, refugees are welcome here".

Thanks for clarifying. Yes that is true. But if this nips it in the bud then it’s potentially better than this dragging on.

But where did this mysterious list come from? And listing places like Brighton? It all seems a bit odd.

Personally I think that the list was made up by one side or the other for their own purposes

Really?

This isn't even an isolated example.

It’s still the lowest in history, lower than the time immigration was commonplace.

The only reason we're perceived as not being attacked is because we've been forced to pay for our own security. At synagogues. Jewish museums. Nurseries. Schools. For reference, I pay £1600 / per year / per child for security at my childrens' school just for them to be safe. They do multiple bomb sweeps a day. This is at a state school, so I shouldn't have to pay anything, but I do.

And people waving Palestinian flags and banning anyone who believes in a two state solution because they want to eradicate the Jewish state are not quite as all-loving as people seem to think. I am Jewish. I openly challenge Islamophobia on MN and in real life on a regular basis because I think it's fucking idiotic. I would not have felt safe at today's counter protest in North Finchley. I would have genuinely been scared to tell people who I actually am, just like Muslims have been feeling for this past week because of the riots.

The best bit about the petrol shortage shenanigans was that the bbc reporter, always reporting live from a forecourt in Stockport, was called Phil McCann.

Cracked me up every morning on the news.

I admire your optimism, but I think you are being a little naive here.

I mean, did anyone even think this list was real and not a massive prank?

As soon as I saw Brighton, Bristol, Oxford, Walthamstow on the list - these places are hardly the heartlands of support for these people. No way they'd go protest there.

Also there were over 20 places on it - way too many.

Someone, somewhere is laughing at fooling loads of middle class people who came out, blocked roads, caused traffic chaos and used up a shit ton of police resources.

If attacks happen, they're gonna be when least expected, they won't be providing times, places, dates and their inside leg measurements!

Or a lot about it and people are being played like a violin

It's a massive current symbol of racism, including in the UK from how the public and government have reacted to the illegal slaughter of brown people going totally against human rights and international laws. It fits with the same dehumanising of ethic groups in the UK right now

They're probably people who have the sense to realise just how dependent on immigration the NHS is.

There was a far right protest in Bristol on Saturday. They ended up outside a hotel where asylum seekers are staying in town. It’s not the first time there is an EDL protest in the city (tho the last one I can remember was a long time ago)

Loving the fact that the likes of Farage, Braverman and Robinson must be so pissed off that their claims of representing what the British public thinks are being so clearly demonstrated as utter nonsense.

Its job was to cause fear and panic, but it backfired as the overwhelming image is going to be 1000s of anti racists protesting.

Thats the image going around the world.

I've been speaking to my neighbours all day, a lockdown type of spirit in my street and lots of people heading to protest against racists (I'm in London)

That aint a good look to show a country full of people rising up "who want their country back" or on the verge of civil war .

I can't tell you how much this photo warms the cockles of my heart.

Then to hear all over the news how similar was repeated across the Country.

We know these thugs are a tiny minority, but to see the actually photo is just fab.

Apparently one man in Liverpool shared a list and googled immigration lawyer offices. That's what the Guardian said. And that it wasn't much shared in right wing groups. Either way it's a show of solidarity. I don't think they are over. I've heard of hotel protests and EDL in my area this weekend.

There was a riot in Bristol at the weekend, with violence, arrests, and fascists surrounding a hotel. So they did go protest there.

The protests at the weekend were also on a list.

How do you imagine they make these riots happen if not through communicating electronically? All of those towns have immigrant populations, as do other areas involved like Hounslow, Nottingham etc. The Fascists REALLY didn't want the sort of headlines that are appearing tonight.

Don’t you hope someone phoned 999 about a lost cat stuck up a tree and the police left en masse leaving the “protestors” to face their nemesis!

Feels a bit like the millennium bug. People working hard to prevent it means that everyone thinks it was an overblown hoax in the first place.

Can you imagine if the government had actually created this list of very specific addresses to target in the middle of riot season, and then they’d been targeted and people had died?

It’s the most wild conspiracy theory I’ve read on here yet.

The list was created by thugs, shared on far-right Telegram groups days ago (which I monitor as part of my job) and was added to by more far-righters (which I saw happen in real time) as they were asked to come up with more ‘targets’.

I was reporting on one of the ‘protests’ tonight for a newspaper (please don’t say legacy media FFS. It’s the language of Trump) and we absolutely did not ‘know’ it was a hoax. Some of the police officers I spoke to today were in tears because they were bloody scared. The business owners boarding up their shops were also terrified.

The implication that this was some kind of clever double bluff by the government is ludicrous. Multiple government departments would have to be involved and there would be a leak within hours.

These thugs planned the protests in these particular locations because they’re ultimately not very bright and they simply crowdsourced the info on the ‘list’ rather than actually thinking about it for more than three minutes.

Looking forward to Tommy’s messages telling everyone how great it is that there was no violence tonight, seeing as he’s such a peaceful guy.

As black people on MN have pointed out, they have been frightened of leaving their homes anyway, irrespective of whether they thought any riots were actually planned. I hope tonight is the first step back to giving them some security.

Supporters of the far right protest will try and fix whatever bullshit to fit their narrative, "it was all part of our cunning plan, etc''

Fact is the world sees this coming from the UK. A tiny bunch of dickheads surrounded by people who reject hate.

Fair point. It’s hard to prove a negative.

Well whoever’s working hard doing whatever it is that they are doing - keep up the good work because tonight it’s worked!